Could This Be TheGreat Apostasy

Dan Corner

The Great Apostasy Will Occur Before The Rapture

The Bible teaches before the rapture occurs, two things will transpire: (1) The [great] apostasy and (2) The revealing of the antichrist:

Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together to Him, that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one in any way deceive you, for it
will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction (2 Thess. 2:1-3).

If we aren’t living now, at this moment, in the days of that same apostasy, that will precede the rise of antichrist, it seems we have to be getting very close. Some think we are and might be correct. The so-called church of our day is such a poor imitation of the true church it is like comparing a ground mole to an airplane. To be more precise it is a spiritual counterfeit having a spiritually adulterous affair with popularity, money and large buildings. It is so far from dispersing wholesome Biblical truth, and has been for so long, that the vast majority in our day have never, even once, been in a congregation that closely resembles the New Testament church described in Acts. They have not heard sermons based on Scripture and therefore, aren’t sure what one sounds like. There are a number of reasons why this is so.

First, the ministers, overseers, superintendents, etc. of denominations and religious groups are nowhere near the
spiritual caliber they need to be for the office they hold! The Bible emphasizes holiness in character and soundness in doctrine, and in that order, as being necessary for people to even qualify for such a high, influential office (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1; 1 Pet. 5). But in our day, secular education, money, influence in the community and a musical ability are often the basis of deciding who will or will not be the church leaders and teachers. The Bible never places a premium on any type of ignorance, but formal education, etc. has never been the basis for ministry, according to Scripture. The Lord Jesus chose the Twelve and four out of that number were ignorant fishermen who reeked with no formal education, but they were qualified to hold the
highest office in the church.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

The word translated ordinary in the Greek is the word we get idiot from. Peter and John might have been rejected in our day, but were
qualified in God’s eyes to be among his chief spokesmen because of their heart condition. This was also the basis of choosing a replacement for Judas:

Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart.
Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs” (Acts 1:24,25).

Paul said he was not a trained speaker either, but was the greatest example Christianity ever produced:

I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way (2 Cor. 11:6).

(Note: knowledge has nothing to do with being a trained speaker or not.) Elsewhere Paul wrote that false teachers can be smooth talkers. It is still like this in our day:

For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people (Rom. 16:18).

Even Moses, God’s premium choice in his day to be the spiritual leader over Israel, was not eloquent in speech, but was instead slow in speech and tongue:

Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you,
and his heart will be glad when he sees you.” (Ex. 4:10-14)

Remember: God overlooked Aaron, who was Moses’s older brother and who spoke well, to pick Moses, who was slow of speech and
tongue.

Either one of the two Scriptural standards in 1 Tim. 3 or Titus would eliminate 99% of the spiritual leaders in the church of our hour—together there would be almost a clean sweep. Our present day spiritual leaders, for the most part, are ignorant of the Scriptures, slothful, worldly, spiritually blind, pleasure seekers and asleep. The ones that do have zeal seem to be only zealous to spread their unique teaching, which sets them apart from all other groups.
One such example would be the people who wrongly think water
baptism is necessary for forgiveness of sins. Two more are keeping the Saturday Sabbath for salvation and KJV Onlyism.

Moreover, many leaders are there for the wrong reason. We went to one congregation and the present pastor got in that position because
he lost his job and needed a source of income! If he didn’t have influential supporters from that group (his immediate family) he would not have been there as pastor. Is it any wonder why people can’t find a sound church in their area?

To have such men that are not Scripturally qualified, as examples and teachers, will result in many souls perishing. Getting back to Moses and Aaron, later in Exodus we read where Aaron, as a spiritual leader, failed and stumbled the vast majority into idolatry with the golden calf. He was a prime example of a man-pleaser, like many are today.

Similarly, in our day, there are unqualified (and dangerous) spiritual leaders everywhere. Often people want some kind of ministry, but aren’t qualified. They went, but weren’t sent. They answered, but weren’t called:

I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied (Jer. 23:21).

Hence, their influence can be a detriment to others, as well as to themselves. For example, to put a new convert in the position of
spiritual leadership, will jeopardize that new convert’s salvation.

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil (1 Tim. 3:6).

Scripture says blind leaders are spiritually dangerous people:

If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a
pit (Mat. 15:14).

Multitudes of church people are so worn out and tired from working
two jobs to make all of the payments they owe, they have little quality
time, if any, to read the Bible for themselves. Their lives are too busy
with the cares of this life, temporal pursuits and TV watching to read
their eternal contract book with God [the Bible]. They, therefore,
just dangerously trust some popular, respected, religious teacher
or dear family member who loves them. Since these people are not
acquainted with the Scriptures, as they need to be, they can’t discern
the deadly errors being taught. And since these teachers are blind
themselves, they can’t feed and warn the sheep as the sheep need fed
and warned. Even if the pastors were able to feed the sheep many
wouldn’t and if they did the majority of their listeners wouldn’t like it
or tolerate it. These shepherds get their easy-to-receive sermons out
of books, rather than going directly to the Bible for themselves. Many
so-called pastors are not able to preach their own sermons from their
personal study of the Bible. Instead of preaching the word as they are
commanded (2 Tim. 4:2), they tell jokes, stories, give book reports
and smile a lot to use up the time. The sheep need fed wholesome
spiritual food, but they aren’t getting it. Hence, they are getting
weaker and weaker and dying spiritually.

Levity from the pulpit is another area worthy of criticism. Scripture
teaches how the Word of God is to be delivered:

In everything set them an example by doing what is
good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness
and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so
that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they
have nothing bad to say about us (Titus 2:7,8).

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for
profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God
with sincerity, like men sent from God (2 Cor. 2:17).

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the
very words of God ... (1 Pet. 4:11).

I once went to meeting where the majority of people there were
unsaved. The teacher was doing a fine job giving out the word of God
and unsaved people were being convicted, until he changed his tone
and told a joke. That killed the conviction that had been there
beforehand.

False Doctrine Abounds

There is no doubt that the devil has been busy and very successful
tempting people into sin and false doctrines. He has done such an
excellent job that the wickedness in the church is so rampant that
the divorce rate has exceeded those outside the church and this is
not even a concern! This is a whole separate issue in itself, but
suffice it to say that a very large percentage of remarried people in
the so-called church are actually in adultery, as are their spouses.
This also includes those pastoring congregations and teaching
over the radio. Some of these leaders have been remarried two,
three and four times. The congregations are polluted with such
forms of adultery and almost no one seems to be aware of this or even
cares anymore. But God sees all this adultery. He has not changed his
holy standards by the flood of wickedness and unfaithfulness inside
the church of our hour. All this hurts the holy image of Christianity as
a whole. And because of the multiple church scandals, the church (in
the eyes of the world) is a joke and lacks the power needed to live
holy. Wickedness, ignorance and religious deception are so prevalent, it is
often grieving to attend a church service. It seems to be a repeat
from Jeremiah’s day:

To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it (Jer. 6:10).

Because the sin-filled parishioners are sitting before a blind and
ignorant leader (“pastor”) that seems to only want to teach his 20
minute message to appease his audience, and especially the big
money-givers, little or no word is being preached. If the word was
taught, the people would find it offensive because they are in sin and
don’t see any real reason to repent. Hence, the vital message of
faithful and unashamed commitment to Jesus, as well as repentance,
holy living and endurance for salvation, has been replaced with: (1)
tolerance for everyone, (2) God loves us all and (3) let’s not judge. It
has been this way for decades in many congregations and the people
there like it that way. They are comfortable in their sins and no one
better bring Holy Spirit conviction upon them, because such won’t be
tolerated by the complacent pew warmers.

In one denominational “church” various potential pastors were
candidating for the position and one of the so-called elders, who
would help decide who would be the next pastor, said we don’t want
someone who is going to shove the word down our throats! The
churches want soft, easy and short teachings, entertainment, softball
teams, swim ministries and their laughing revivals. High on their
priority list is entertainment. Since so many are already addicted to
TV watching—spending multiple hours each day before it, they are in
an entertainment mode, which the present church leaders have helped
to produce and perpetuate.

Of all of the damnable heresies that are being preached by the blind
guides, the worst one is eternal security (also known as the
perseverance of the saints or once saved always saved). This security-in-sin gospel has spread around the world and many now question the
salvation of a true Christian who rejects it and smears him as believing in a works salvation. Many of the same church goers don’t
question the salvation of an adulterer or drunkard who was once
saved, but do if you dismiss eternal security.

As mentioned earlier, one of the spiritual qualifications for a leader in
the church is doctrinal soundness. To be more precise, he must be
able to refute those that oppose sound doctrine (Titus 1:9). Our
hour is so dark, that the established leaders themselves are boldly
teaching the damnable heresy of eternal security as the gospel itself
instead of refuting it as should be done. The heretics are supposed to
be outside the church, but now they have the platforms in the church,
at the radio and TV stations, with book publishers and they have won
the favor of large donators. The deadly lies about eternal security
continually gush forth, with little to no challenge at all, to the eternal
detriment of precious, sincere souls who really want to know the
truth.

Moreover, many of the few who recognize eternal security is not a
Christian teaching think that Christians of present and past can (or
did) teach this doctrine which is the exact opposite of what the Book
of Jude proclaims. How could it be this bad except for apostasy!
Even the so-called discernment, countercult and apologetic ministries
teach and try to defend eternal security. We have noticed that many
who come out of a false religion like Mormonism, Catholicism or
Jehovah’s Witnesses, often get immediately ensnared by one of
these counter cult,discernment or berean ministries that teach the
damnable heresy of eternal security.

The Prosperity Message is a subtle poison which promotes greed and
materialism. I remember hearing one such teacher say he can tell what
kind of faith a person has by the kind of car he drives. Such is so far
from the message of the Bible that it bears no resemblance. If it was
Biblical, then the Lord’s disciples, who were poor, must have had
weak faith which is flatly refuted by Jesus himself:

I [Jesus] know your afflictions and your poverty—yet
you are rich! (Rev. 2:9).

Jesus saw their material poverty, yet he said they were rich
spiritually! Such is also seen in the life of Paul. According to the
following, he was materially poor, yet very rich spiritually. Listen to
his concise autobiography:

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on
display at the end of the procession, like men condemned
to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the
whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools
for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak,
but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!
To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We
work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we
bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we
are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we
have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the
world (1 Cor. 4:9-13).

Some of the prosperity teachers also have taught if you have
enough faith, you will never suffer persecution. That is clearly not
the teaching of Scripture, especially since Stephen was a man who
was filled with faith, yet was persecuted to his physical death
(Acts 6:5 cf. 7:54-60). Jesus also said his disciples would be hated
and persecuted:

If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its
own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world. That is why the world
hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: “No
servant is greater than his master.” If they persecuted
me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my
teaching, they will obey yours also (John 15:19,20).

If material possessions would indicate how close to God one was
and/or how much faith or Scriptural knowledge he had, then Paul
and his traveling companions were very far from where they
should have been. But that certainly was not the case. They were
very close to God and therefore material possessions were low on
their priority list. They lived holy and committed lives as they
often risked their physical lives for the cause of souls. Those are
the kinds of examples that turned the world upside down in their
generation. It has always been this way. For one to really stir his
generation it takes a holy commitment to God that won’t be
moved even in the face of death.

Because of the false teachings in our day, especially eternal security
and that there is no fiery hell awaiting the wicked after their physical
death, multitudes of church people have no fear of God and are
primarily pursuing the same temporal and material things that the
blinded and dead children of the devil follow after. This has led to
untold trouble in multiple areas. Outside the church building, it is
hard to recognize a church-goer from a rank pagan in our day. They
both basically talk the same, have the same ambitions and goals that
center around money and creature comforts. The power of a godly
example is virtually gone from our society and with it many
conversions.

It is plenty bad enough with the aforementioned, but there is yet
another mountainous problem that certainly identifies our
present day church as apostate. This one is sometimes known as the
ecumenical movement. This horrible apostate hour has various
ministers from Catholic to protestant swapping pulpits at least once a
year. Such religious community leaders also meet together as a
spiritual family and plan different kinds of religious events. They all
seem to consider the other one Christian, and it is probably the person
with the most people or money under his influence that will be in
charge of the group!

In one assembly, a Catholic representative was scheduled to have
communion at the Easter Sunrise Service along with the Christians
there in a protestant denomination. Imagine that. Such an unholy
alliance has led to more and more problems and people being led
away from the truth and even becoming Catholic. If this doesn’t
smell like apostasy how much more will it take? By becoming a
friend with the world many have become enemies of God again
(James 4:4):

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through
hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as
with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order
them to abstain from certain foods, which God created
to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe
and who know the truth. For everything God created is
good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of
God and prayer. If you point these things out to the
brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus,
brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good
teaching that you have followed (1 Tim. 4:1-6).

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last
days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness
but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them
(2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Multitudes that profess to be Christian are described above—they
have a form of godliness but deny its power. The real Christians are
commanded to have nothing to do with such religious people, but
not in our day, when wickedness and friendship with the world
are a priority.Let’s unify seems to be the norm among such groups.
They all agree on the so-called Lord’s prayer and apostles creed, but
that is not the common denominator for true Christian unity. Holiness
and sound doctrine are.

Another ear-tickling teaching is the pre-trib rapture doctrine. This
teaching states before real hard times, including nuclear war and the
rise of antichrist, the Christians will meet the Lord in the air and
forever be with him in paradise. This has put the Christians off
their guard and causes them to be unprepared for serious trouble
and problems such as this world has never seen before and never
will have again. Imagine living in a society where people will openly
worship the devil and the antichrist! The laws will dictate that no
person will buy or sell anything without the mark of the antichrist on
the forehead or right hand. To receive that mark to continue to eat
food and buy gasoline for your car, etc. will mean that you will give
your allegiance to the devil’s man and even worship him or his image.
There will be no churches to go to, no Christian internet sites, Bibles
will be hard to come by, etc. Wickedness will reign, but it will still be
worse! The antichrist will target true Christians and locate them.
With the technology we have today it is very easy to see how this
could happen. The ones who remain faithful to Jesus will refuse the
mark and either get their heads cut off or they will go into captivity:

Men worshiped the dragon because he had given
authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the
beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can
make war against him?” The beast was given a mouth
to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his
authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to
blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his
dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was
given power to make war against the saints and to
conquer them. And he was given authority over every
tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the
earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not
been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb
that was slain from the creation of the world. He who
has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to go into
captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be
killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.
This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on
the part of the saints (Rev. 13:4-10).

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been
given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those
who had been beheaded because of their testimony for
Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not
worshiped the beast or his image and had not
received his mark on their foreheads or their hands.
They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand
years (Rev 20:4).

There will be no worldwide Christian revival, like some think will
occur and then usher in the return of the Lord. Such is not found
in the pages of the Bible. With the above being the future of this
planet, according to the Bible, how can so many be deceived by the
prevalent teaching of a pre-trib rapture? Just wanting this to be true
doesn’t make it true.

Now is the time to prepare yourself spiritually for death and
martyrdom, which all Christians should walk in constantly
anyway. The blood of the saints will flow, as the heads of the faithful
roll. Dear Christian, if we are the last generation this will include you
too, unless you make the spiritually fatal decision to take the mark to
save your physical life. Are you prepared to face the antichrist and die
for your faith? The Christians that succumb to the pressures to
save their physical lives and take the mark will lose their
salvation. They will only be gaining a few years at most and will
get painful, ugly sores here and now, even before being thrown
into the lake of fire for eternity. There will be no repentance for
them:

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If
anyone worships the beast and his image and receives
his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will
drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been
poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will
be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of
the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of
their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest
day or night for those who worship the beast and his
image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his
name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the
saints who obey God’s commandments and remain
faithful to Jesus (Rev. 14:9-12).

Our generation loves religious fairytales, including the pre-trib
teaching. Even some that know the teaching of eternal security (or the
Calvinistic equivalent of “the perseverance of the saints”) is demonic,
love the pre-trib rapture myth. One can only wonder when nuclear
war breaks out, what will happen to the faith of many that believe
they should have been raptured, but weren’t? Many will
probably fall away when that occurs because they were taught
wrongly.

Besides all of the above grievous problems, the devil has ripped and
splintered even more of the few real Christians over the ridiculous
KJV only issue. Please know that I’m not referring to all KJV
users, just those who think the KJV is the only Bible that contains
God’s word. To these people the chief issue is to see to it that every
Christian only reads the archaic and almost incomprehensible KJV.
To them all other translations are perversions. One of their chief
unscholarly scholars, Gail Riplinger, seems to focus on left out words,
phrases or verses that the newer translations don’t have when
compared to the KJV. It apparently has never dawned on her or her
followers, that perhaps the KJV added those words, phrases and
verses. (Please see our Critique of Gail Riplinger’s Scholarship and
KJV Onlyism.)

If one reads only the KJV he will have a limited understanding of the
Bible because the wording is so outdated and misleading. Not only
will the words, that few have ever heard of before, frustrate and
discourage the KJV onlyite, the words they think they know often
mean something different. In one congregation, they first read the
KJV, then immediately read a newer translation to find out what the
KJV Scripture was saying!

The people that fight for the King James Bible alone are, from our
observation, mainly very aggressive, misinformed and highly
divisive. They consider you unworthy to teach them, even on a
subject they mutually agree on, unless you use only the KJV. To
them, all books not based exclusively on the KJV, are at best
inferior, solely on this single point.

At other times they are seemingly rational, but when it comes to this,
they blindly repeat what they have been taught by their misinformed
leaders. As discouraged, beaten down and disappointed many
Christians are in our dark hour, this KJV only issue has actually
made it worse. It is the icing on the devil’s cake to cause even
more harm.

Similar to the KJV onlyism group are the Yeshua people. Many, but
not all, of these same people adamantly insist that Messiah’s
name is Yeshua and to use the name Jesus is pagan! To try to
reason with some of these people is like trying to penetrate the rock
of Gibralter with a water pistol. They don’t care that Jesus’ apostles
were Hebrew, who wrote the New Testament in Greek, and the
transliteration into English of the Greek name for Messiah is J-e-s-u-s. Apart from these facts, they also overlook and can’t explain
how so many people have been brought to salvation and healed
physically because of faith in the name of Jesus. If the holy,
precious name of Jesus is really pagan as they say, then why
would God honor it as he has for all these centuries?

Furthermore, some of these Yeshua groups also believe in Saturday
Sabbath keeping for salvation and the keeping of Old Testament
dietary laws!

The Apostasy Is Getting Worse

May God help us all continue to live holy and walk in love despite all
of the rampant wickedness, damnable doctrine and foolishness being
declared in and around the so-called churches and ministries of our
day. But, we really shouldn’t be too surprised by all of this, since
apostasy will precede the rise of antichrist. So could this be the
great apostasy that the Bible speaks of? Some think so and they
might be right! Perhaps the great apostasy referred to in 2 Thess. 2 is
also alluded to in the following passage:

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put
to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of
me. At that time many will turn away from the faith
and will betray and hate each other, and many false
prophets will appear and deceive many people (Mat.
24:9-11).

Certainly, Mt. 24:10 is referring to an apostasy, but it is associated
with persecution and being put to death for the Christian faith.
This would also fit into the days of the reign of antichrist, but not yet,
at least not here in the USA. (In countries outside the USA, Christians
are now dying for the faith.) Remember, Jesus taught the following to
those already saved:

All men will hate you because of me, but he who
stands firm to the end will be saved (Mat. 10:22).

The apostasy we are in now will only incease into the great apostasy mentioned in scripture.